Hmm...i was browsing around youtube, then I stumbled on this song. Old song, bout two years, new to me. The main version is some sort of house version. This is more preferable imo. I'm a closeted sappy song guy once in a while heh. The title "every time we touch" is kinda gaudy, but nice tune. Dedicated to all the couples out there =)
Oh, the FFX thing came with the song. Sorry non fans of FFX.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Malaysian taxes and sometimes it pays to be dumb.
Just yesterday I made a trip to the Penang LHDN office to verify a few meager dividend checks. For tax filing, the tax office will need to verify the dividends through mail in or in person verification. Verifying in person is advantageous to get quicker refunds and reduce paperwork.
Those who are in the lower tax bracket (namely me) can get some of the money back that was taxed at the dividend payout. For instance, A 100 RM dividend will be taxed 27%. For those in the lower tax brackets, they get money refunded back to them. The 10% tax bracket will get roughly the difference, which in this case 17%, refunded back to them.
Tax Returns
I had just a few dividends to declare, lucky me. Some others had 30 or 40 dividend vouchers. So, the officers had to go verify each dividend voucher one by one. But ah....things get even more complicated. Just last year, the tax changed a bit. Depending on when the check was issued, dividend tax for 2006 was 27% and in 2007 was 26%. The company secretaries must really be sleeping on the job because they messed up all of the few vouchers I had.
Anyhow, so one guy next to me was smart enough to do the alterations, probably figuring out ok, I can save the hassle of the dividend verifier correcting all the mistakes. But when the tax rate was reduced, the actual gross dividend being taxed was changed as well. I believe this was a corporate tax change. So from the example before, 100 would probably be reduced to RM98.5 (though it's not exactly 1.5%, it differs from dividend to dividend), and then the income tax rate would also be changed, 28% would be changed to 27%. I just filled out what was on the dividend voucher and put it on the form. It was all wrong of course, but no different than a lot of others who did the same thing.
The dividend verifier went and did all the corrections for me. The guy next to me changed the income tax rate, but didn't change the gross dividend being taxed. So he messed up his thirty or forty dividend vouchers and furthermore, the dividend verifier wouldn't offer to correct it!
I would have at least tried the sad puppy dog face, works a lot of times for me :)
He said this was all wrong and asked him to come tomorrow and redo it. Others who did it like me were fine i guess because I saw others who were in the same situation as me and some of them had a lot of vouchers, and the dividend verifier did all the corrections. It wasn't the amount of checks, but I suppose the verifier required at least a standard base to work from.
Moral of the story: Sometimes it pays to be dumb, and don't try to make work easier for the LHDN, because if you mess up the work you do for them, they'll screw u good!
Those who are in the lower tax bracket (namely me) can get some of the money back that was taxed at the dividend payout. For instance, A 100 RM dividend will be taxed 27%. For those in the lower tax brackets, they get money refunded back to them. The 10% tax bracket will get roughly the difference, which in this case 17%, refunded back to them.
Tax ReturnsI had just a few dividends to declare, lucky me. Some others had 30 or 40 dividend vouchers. So, the officers had to go verify each dividend voucher one by one. But ah....things get even more complicated. Just last year, the tax changed a bit. Depending on when the check was issued, dividend tax for 2006 was 27% and in 2007 was 26%. The company secretaries must really be sleeping on the job because they messed up all of the few vouchers I had.
Anyhow, so one guy next to me was smart enough to do the alterations, probably figuring out ok, I can save the hassle of the dividend verifier correcting all the mistakes. But when the tax rate was reduced, the actual gross dividend being taxed was changed as well. I believe this was a corporate tax change. So from the example before, 100 would probably be reduced to RM98.5 (though it's not exactly 1.5%, it differs from dividend to dividend), and then the income tax rate would also be changed, 28% would be changed to 27%. I just filled out what was on the dividend voucher and put it on the form. It was all wrong of course, but no different than a lot of others who did the same thing.
The dividend verifier went and did all the corrections for me. The guy next to me changed the income tax rate, but didn't change the gross dividend being taxed. So he messed up his thirty or forty dividend vouchers and furthermore, the dividend verifier wouldn't offer to correct it!
I would have at least tried the sad puppy dog face, works a lot of times for me :)He said this was all wrong and asked him to come tomorrow and redo it. Others who did it like me were fine i guess because I saw others who were in the same situation as me and some of them had a lot of vouchers, and the dividend verifier did all the corrections. It wasn't the amount of checks, but I suppose the verifier required at least a standard base to work from.
Moral of the story: Sometimes it pays to be dumb, and don't try to make work easier for the LHDN, because if you mess up the work you do for them, they'll screw u good!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Cigarette warning pictures
Warning: Some images in this post might be disturbing. Proceed at your own risk.
The trend these days for countries to deter their citizens from smoking by putting disgusting pictures of people affected by the nasty habit. Here are a few examples of our neighboring countries' brilliant ideas to curb people from smoking.
Singapore
Thailand
Unfortunately, we more than likely will see these type of cigarette packs in Malaysia. After all if our neighbors to the north and south are doing it, we might as well join the party. For the most part, I think people will just initially get disgusted but continue buying cigarettes. Well, where there's government regulation, there is opportunity. Louis Vuitton carries these bad boys and I bet they are hot sellers due to the governments around the world deciding to make cigarette manufacturers post disgusting pictures on their cigarette packs. What exactly are they? Cigarette holders!
Put the cigarette packs into these bad boys, and tada....no need to see disgusting images! Throw the disgusting box away! Governments really outsmarted themselves out on this one. This reminds me of a special cd technology that apparently made it impossible for people to make copies. It was very sound technologically and cd burners couldn't burn the cd at first. But people being people, found a way. The way around this was to take a marker and draw around the outside of the cd. The cd technology turned out to be a big waste of money.
p/s: I don't particularly like cigarettes or smoking. I in fact don't like them at all. The world could do without ciggies.
The trend these days for countries to deter their citizens from smoking by putting disgusting pictures of people affected by the nasty habit. Here are a few examples of our neighboring countries' brilliant ideas to curb people from smoking.
Singapore
ThailandUnfortunately, we more than likely will see these type of cigarette packs in Malaysia. After all if our neighbors to the north and south are doing it, we might as well join the party. For the most part, I think people will just initially get disgusted but continue buying cigarettes. Well, where there's government regulation, there is opportunity. Louis Vuitton carries these bad boys and I bet they are hot sellers due to the governments around the world deciding to make cigarette manufacturers post disgusting pictures on their cigarette packs. What exactly are they? Cigarette holders!
Put the cigarette packs into these bad boys, and tada....no need to see disgusting images! Throw the disgusting box away! Governments really outsmarted themselves out on this one. This reminds me of a special cd technology that apparently made it impossible for people to make copies. It was very sound technologically and cd burners couldn't burn the cd at first. But people being people, found a way. The way around this was to take a marker and draw around the outside of the cd. The cd technology turned out to be a big waste of money.p/s: I don't particularly like cigarettes or smoking. I in fact don't like them at all. The world could do without ciggies.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Justin and Madonna's 4 minute song
I was searching for new R&B songs to download, and recently, Justin Timberlake and Madonna came out with a new song called 4 minutes. I think the song overall is decent. Justin T is as good as ever in the video, but I feel Madonna pales in comparison. Maybe her voice isn't current any more. Furthermore, When I see the timeless Mariah Carey still rip out decent songs, I feel Madonna's voice is more of the past and not so current any more.
madonna and JT
I think other female singers could have done a better job in 4 Minutes. Actually, Britney Spears is a much better fit for the song. The song Gimme More sounds similar. Britney Spears can still blow catchy tunes. If I imagined Britney Spears doing 4 Minutes, she would do much better. They really should collaborate. I think there's some bad blood still from their previous relationship, they've not worked together in like forever. But I think they should just bury the hatchet and just make good music. Britney and Justin's 4 minutes just would plaster Madonna and Justin's version.
Britney Spears
I hope the below link to 4 minutes video doesn't get removed due to copyright:
madonna and JT
I think other female singers could have done a better job in 4 Minutes. Actually, Britney Spears is a much better fit for the song. The song Gimme More sounds similar. Britney Spears can still blow catchy tunes. If I imagined Britney Spears doing 4 Minutes, she would do much better. They really should collaborate. I think there's some bad blood still from their previous relationship, they've not worked together in like forever. But I think they should just bury the hatchet and just make good music. Britney and Justin's 4 minutes just would plaster Madonna and Justin's version.
Britney SpearsI hope the below link to 4 minutes video doesn't get removed due to copyright:
Friday, April 04, 2008
Biting Mangoes
I woke up this morning kind of early, 10:30 am...yeah thats early for a Saturday. I switched on the TV to watch MTV. A show called Popparazi was being played. I guess I don't regularly watch this show, but for some reason, that particular segment, Marion Counter was making some really interesting comments. I got to say it takes a lot of guts to make these kind of jokes on TV. Luckily a lot of people don't really get the jokes in Malaysia.
Marion Caunter
There was this promo of the show Top Model with Tyson Beckford, I believe. He's a black male model/actor. He did this scene of biting a mango to demonstrate how to sell an item in front of a camera, which was the episode's theme.
So Marion says after, "Tyson, you can take a bite of my mango any time." And Dom, the co-host, I think didn't know what to say.
I would have said "I think mango-eating is a great past time" "Mangoes are good because the fruit is usually sweet" "The tongue is really sensitive to sweet fruit" XD
"I also like apples. how do u like them apples?" or "i think mangoes go well with apples"
oh if u haven't seen it....
Marion CaunterThere was this promo of the show Top Model with Tyson Beckford, I believe. He's a black male model/actor. He did this scene of biting a mango to demonstrate how to sell an item in front of a camera, which was the episode's theme.
So Marion says after, "Tyson, you can take a bite of my mango any time." And Dom, the co-host, I think didn't know what to say.
I would have said "I think mango-eating is a great past time" "Mangoes are good because the fruit is usually sweet" "The tongue is really sensitive to sweet fruit" XD
"I also like apples. how do u like them apples?" or "i think mangoes go well with apples"
oh if u haven't seen it....
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